Our new LIS

31 March 2017

SA Pathology has introduced its new Laboratory Information System (LIS) at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital, the first of our laboratory sites to go live during 2017.

Phased rollout

This first stage of implementation primarily affects clinicians ordering tests for hospital patients at WCH and doctors receiving copies of those results. During the migration of the new LIS to all our labs, which is expected to take around nine months, our legacy laboratory systems will remain in operation until they are replaced in phases across all sites. When the rollout is complete we will have a single, state-wide pathology system.

Report Variations

Initially, unless clinicians have patients at WCH, they may not notice any significant changes, but as the new LIS is introduced at more sites during the year, including at the new RAH, doctors will start to see variations in reporting, such as receiving test reports in different formats and also changes in names of tests and/or panels of tests.

While this transition to a new laboratory system will be complex, the important message we wish to convey to health professionals is that there is no change to our practice of issuing abnormal, urgent or critical pathology results; they will continue to be phoned or faxed to clinicians as they are now. There is also no change to usual methods of ordering pathology.

Accurate tracking

The new laboratory system offers improved specimen traceability, but also depends on correct information provided to our labs. Thus it remains essential that all patient identifiers are written clearly on pathology request forms or entered into electronic orders, and relevant dates and times are recorded. The more details we can enter into patient search fields, the more accurate the results.

More information

We have created a specific place on the SA Pathology website where doctors and specialists can access information about the new LIS and where a range of fact sheets are available. Look for the LIS button on the right hand side of the homepage, or locate the ‘Our new LIS’ site via the drop-down menu under ‘Clinicians’.

If you have any questions about our new laboratory information system, please phone our Enquiries team on (08) 8222 3000.